Vision based navigation systems use data captured through sensors that scan the environment through which the navigation system travels. In certain embodiments, the sensors provide a three-dimensional description of the environment containing the navigation system. To determine the movement and position of the navigation system based on the three-dimensional data, the navigation system compares three-dimensional data gathered at different times to detect changes in movement and position of the navigation system in relation to the environment. However, a three-dimensional scan of an environment provides large amounts of data and calculating the amount of data provided by a three-dimensional scan of the environment is difficult to perform within a reasonable amount of time.